How can we mitigate climate change 2?

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lynnvinc

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While many still doubt whether anthropogenic global warming is a reality, popes and bishops have called us to take the prudent course of mitigating it, even if we personally are not convinced it is happening.

I’d like this thread to address sensible ways we can mitigate global warming – reduce our greenhouse gases – and not as a place to discuss whether or not AGW is happening (there are plenty of threads on CAF addressing that).

You can see some suggestions on an earlier similar thread that was closed: forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=656903

So give us your practical suggestions. Can be for individuals, families, businesses, schools, churches, etc.
 
How about no more reports and papers on global warming, this reducing all the carbon emissions caused by producing them? 😉
 
peter26 said:
How about no more reports and papers on global warming, this reducing all the carbon emissions caused by producing them? 😉
Click to expand...
Actually you are on to something.

Since CC reached 95% (p=.05) scientific confidence back in 1995, & JPII admonished us to mitigate it as early as 1990, with BXVI & Pope Francis following suit, we didn’t need a lot more science so much as a lot of effort to mitigate it.

Also, no matter how many studies there are, those who don’t accept it by now are never going to accept it, no matter what. There are simply no more skeptics left in that crowd anymore, only lifetime confirmed denialists.

So all that money could have been plowed into mitigation, and who knows, maybe the temps would be coming down instead of going up, making the denialists AND those concerned about CC very happy (and helping our pocketbooks & the economy, making us all double happy)…except we wouldn’t really know that CC had reversed since no science was being done on it.
 
Also, our personal food choices have a tremendous effect on natural resources, owing to the enormous quantities of water directly and indirectly necessary for cattle. I’m always hesitant and reluctant to post links to radical vegetarian sites, but the information is easily findable if one looks.

This is a great idea for a thread, by the way.
 
Have a look at research on global dimming. It is suspected to be mitigating the effects of global warming, and to some extent, protecting the earth from global warming. The efforts to mitigate anthropogenic causes of warming, may reduce dimming to a detrimental effect.

In my country, global warming is changing the landscape, nature, and character of bushfires.
Post Black Saturday, predictions are , if the globe remains on its present track, we will be subject to these super bushfires every few years by mid century.

Some stats on the nature of those fires

From
Facts And Statistics About The Black Saturday Fires

The energy that the black saturday bushfires released is equivalent to one thousand five hundred of the atomic bombs that struck Hiroshima
1,100,000 acres of land were burnt
There were over 400separatefires that led up to the event of black saturday. Many joined up to creat a fire complex previously unknown.
The temperature on the day was recorded around 47*degrees
There was 12 years of drought which led up to the fires.
There were flames that reached 100 meters high
 
Exiled_Child said:
Also, food choices have a tremendous effect on natural resources, owing to the enormous quantities of water directly and indirectly necessary for cattle. I’m always hesitant and reluctant to post links to radical vegetarian sites, but the information is easily findable if one looks.

This is a great idea for a thread, by the way.
Click to expand...
I’m sort of a backslider on the food thing, but I agree there are lots of food ideas to mitigate CC - so I am now encouraged to get back into some/most of these:

-use a pressure cooker

-eat more raw produce – which is also a cancer cure & a basic panacea for many conditions & diseases.

-go vegan, or vegetarian, or how about getting back to meatless Fridays, and maybe add in one more meatless day, say Tues, which is also the Sorrowful Mysteries.

-become a “locavore” - buy local & seasonal foods, & reduce those “food miles.”
  • eat organic as much as possible; synthetic fertilizers involve more nitrous oxide emissions, a powerful GHG
  • if overweight, eat less – it’s also good for your health (I’m glad a doctor finally scolded me, so I did lose some 35#, but have some 10# more to lose…mainly for health reasons, but glad it helps the env)
-waste not food. Put portions of cooked food in the freezer you won’t be eating that day. Also keeping the freezer & frig well-stocked reduces energy use
 
Exiled_Child said:
Also, our personal food choices have a tremendous effect on natural resources, owing to the enormous quantities of water directly and indirectly necessary for cattle. I’m always hesitant and reluctant to post links to radical vegetarian sites, but the information is easily findable if one looks.

This is a great idea for a thread, by the way.
Click to expand...
There is just no way in Hell, Michigan, that I will become a vegetarian, and millions agree with me.

The anti-AGW crowd needs to focus on changes and sacrifices that are small enough that very few will object to. Else nothing will happen (except putatively further AGW).

ICXC NIKA
 
lynnvinc said:
While many still doubt whether anthropogenic global warming is a reality, popes and bishops have called us to take the prudent course of mitigating it, even if we personally are not convinced it is happening.

I’d like this thread to address sensible ways we can mitigate global warming – reduce our greenhouse gases – and not as a place to discuss whether or not AGW is happening (there are plenty of threads on CAF addressing that).

You can see some suggestions on an earlier similar thread that was closed: forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=656903

So give us your practical suggestions. Can be for individuals, families, businesses, schools, churches, etc.
Click to expand...
A diet higher in healthy grains, fruits, and vegetables will be a good factor for alleviating climate change. The more calorie-heavy foods we intake, the more it takes to maintain ourselves, both in terms of our personal wallet and in the infrastructure/agriculture needed to support such a lifestyle, not to mention the incurring medical bills that will likely result from a gluttonous lifestyle. Cattle and other livestock, along with the large quantity of land needed to support them, are a large factor in the greenhouse gases that raise global temperatures.

This will have temporal benefits on our siblings, since climate change affects the poorest of the poor most directly, as the Holy Father noted, but as Catholics, any sacrifices (which can hardly be called sacrifices since they are good for us anyway) should be made with a spiritual dimension to parallel the material one.

Habits are very difficult to change, so in this respect, one way to change them would be simply changing what to buy at the grocery store, so when the times comes to be hungry, you are stuck with whatever options are available in the kitchen.

Also, consider converting lawn space into garden space. Lawns are a very wasteful use of land if they are not being inhabited by the laughter of children playing in them.

Needless to say, our political support as voters is also valuable. This is difficult in the US, where we do not have a party that closely aligns to Catholic teaching, but we could still show our support for reductions in wastefulness among other things.
 
lynnvinc said:
I’m sort of a backslider on the food thing, but I agree there are lots of food ideas to mitigate CC - so I am now encouraged to get back into some/most of these:

-use a pressure cooker

-eat more raw produce – which is also a cancer cure & a basic panacea for many conditions & diseases.

-go vegan, or vegetarian, or how about getting back to meatless Fridays, and maybe add in one more meatless day, say Tues, which is also the Sorrowful Mysteries.

-become a “locavore” - buy local & seasonal foods, & reduce those “food miles.”
  • eat organic as much as possible; synthetic fertilizers involve more nitrous oxide emissions, a powerful GHG
  • if overweight, eat less – it’s also good for your health (I’m glad a doctor finally scolded me, so I did lose some 35#, but have some 10# more to lose…mainly for health reasons, but glad it helps the env)
-waste not food. Put portions of cooked food in the freezer you won’t be eating that day. Also keeping the freezer & frig well-stocked reduces energy use
Click to expand...
Here are some pertinent links:

cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/handle/10568/10601/IssueBrief3.pdf

www3.epa.gov/safewater/kids/water_trivia_facts.html#_edn11

fao.org/docrep/010/a0701e/a0701e00.htm

worldwatch.org/node/6294

There are tons and tons more, but these four seem to be among the best and most informative sites. For instance, and it’s interesting, it takes more than 2,400 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat! Think of that! It means that each vegetarian saves at least a thousand gallons of water per day, depending upon how much meat they formerly ate. Which means, if one hundred million people did that each day it would amount to a hundred billion gallons of water saved! So, the numbers are just mind-boggling. What would a hundred billion gallons of water even look like? I have no idea. And at the same time it also takes hundreds of gallons of water to produce a single gallon of milk, a block of cheese, a bag of potato chips, and on and on. But as GEddie pointed out, few people are willing to even consider the idea, just as pretty much no one is about to give up their cars, and actually to even point out these facts will tend to provoke quite strong and hostile reactions in people. Plus, there are huge numbers of people whose livelihoods depend directly upon these industries. So no one is going to change their ways, unless that change is somehow legally and physically imposed upon them. We’ll carry on with our collective heads in tha sand, and we’ll never get past the argument stage of what should be done. It’s grim, but humans have an innate capacity to ignore virtually anything.
 
Roseeurekacross said:
Have a look at research on global dimming. It is suspected to be mitigating the effects of global warming, and to some extent, protecting the earth from global warming. The efforts to mitigate anthropogenic causes of warming, may reduce dimming to a detrimental effect.

In my country, global warming is changing the landscape, nature, and character of bushfires.
Post Black Saturday, predictions are , if the globe remains on its present track, we will be subject to these super bushfires every few years by mid century.

Some stats on the nature of those fires

From
Facts And Statistics About The Black Saturday Fires

The energy that the black saturday bushfires released is equivalent to one thousand five hundred of the atomic bombs that struck Hiroshima
1,100,000 acres of land were burnt
There were over 400separatefires that led up to the event of black saturday. Many joined up to creat a fire complex previously unknown.
The temperature on the day was recorded around 47*degrees
There was 12 years of drought which led up to the fires.
There were flames that reached 100 meters high
Click to expand...
The main point is that those dimming aerosol molecules only last a few weeks to a few months in the atmosphere before the drop back down. A portion of CO2 molecules can stay in the atmosphere 100s, even 1000s of years – so the warming impact of those fires is net much greater than the cooling impact of the fires. Also, if the soot falls on snow or a light ground, that reduced albedo (whiteness) will also lead to more heat absorption & warming.

I remember when Sadam Hussein had Iraq’s oil operations blown up & set ablase. One could perceive the increased dimness in India for months until they could put most of them out.

There is the concept of a nuclear winter – if a lot of nukes were exploded around the world that would kick up so much dust & smoke that the dimming would harm agriculture for some years & there’d be great starvation, assuming one did not die from the blasts or radiation. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_winter
 
lynnvinc said:
The main point is that those dimming aerosol molecules only last a few weeks to a few months in the atmosphere before the drop back down. A portion of CO2 molecules can stay in the atmosphere 100s, even 1000s of years – so the warming impact of those fires is net much greater than the cooling impact of the fires. Also, if the soot falls on snow or a light ground, that reduced albedo (whiteness) will also lead to more heat absorption & warming.

I remember when Sadam Hussein had Iraq’s oil operations blown up & set ablase. One could perceive the increased dimness in India for months until they could put most of them out.

There is the concept of a nuclear winter – if a lot of nukes were exploded around the world that would kick up so much dust & smoke that the dimming would harm agriculture for some years & there’d be great starvation, assuming one did not die from the blasts or radiation. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_winter
Click to expand...
Seperate the issues global dimming and bushfires.

Global dimming is a phenomena that is emerging, just as global warming is. One is having an effect on the other.
Mainly dimming is negating warming to the extent, scientists believe, if it was not occuring, we would already be in serious trouble from those sun rays.
Global dimming first had a good opportunity to be research post 911 when plane vapour trails were non existent for a few days over certain cities.

My discussion on bushfires was to illustrate how the landscape is already changing due to a warmer globe. Iwe have never seen bushfire behaviour as that in 2009.
Bushfires air pollution is not a contributing factor to dimming.

One major effect of dimming led to changed weather in the maldives, which contributed greatly to the drough in the Sudan and other parts of Africa.

The effect of butterfly wings 😇

Ps there are better scientific articles then wiki. Anyone can write or edit them.
 
lynnvinc said:
While many still doubt whether anthropogenic global warming is a reality, popes and bishops have called us to take the prudent course of mitigating it, even if we personally are not convinced it is happening.

I’d like this thread to address sensible ways we can mitigate global warming – reduce our greenhouse gases – and not as a place to discuss whether or not AGW is happening (there are plenty of threads on CAF addressing that).

You can see some suggestions on an earlier similar thread that was closed: forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=656903

So give us your practical suggestions. Can be for individuals, families, businesses, schools, churches, etc.
Click to expand...
If man is altering the temperature of the planet we should halt all motor vehicle traffic. And cease any industrial production which produces heat. Definitley do away with heat and air conditioning.
Let’s get serious about this. It’s not enough to tax the bejabbers out of production. Let’s put a halt to it. (Of course that wouldn’t redistribute the wealth so it will never happen…)
.
 
GEddie said:
There is just no way in Hell, Michigan, that I will become a vegetarian, and millions agree with me.

The anti-AGW crowd needs to focus on changes and sacrifices that are small enough that very few will object to. Else nothing will happen (except putatively further AGW).

ICXC NIKA
Click to expand...
I know. Catholics don’t even go meatless on Fridays , even Good Friday, as they used to.

Dietary change is the hardest thing on earth, even for health reasons or for the sake of future generations.

I see diabetics going after sugary things all the time. I think only my husband has self-control. No one else I know.
 
Exiled_Child said:
Here are some pertinent links:

cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/handle/10568/10601/IssueBrief3.pdf

www3.epa.gov/safewater/kids/water_trivia_facts.html#_edn11

fao.org/docrep/010/a0701e/a0701e00.htm

worldwatch.org/node/6294

There are tons and tons more, but these four seem to be among the best and most informative sites. For instance, and it’s interesting, it takes more than 2,400 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat! Think of that! It means that each vegetarian saves at least a thousand gallons of water per day, depending upon how much meat they formerly ate. Which means, if one hundred million people did that each day it would amount to a hundred billion gallons of water saved! So, the numbers are just mind-boggling. What would a hundred billion gallons of water even look like? I have no idea. And at the same time it also takes hundreds of gallons of water to produce a single gallon of milk, a block of cheese, a bag of potato chips, and on and on…
Click to expand...
And that water needs energy to pump it.

I’ve heard there are ways to do ag more sustainably, without so much water.

Grazing, grass-fed beef is one, & it is by far a more healthy choice.
 
Roseeurekacross said:
Seperate the issues global dimming and bushfires.

Global dimming is a phenomena that is emerging, just as global warming is. One is having an effect on the other.
Mainly dimming is negating warming to the extent, scientists believe, if it was not occuring, we would already be in serious trouble from those sun rays.
Global dimming first had a good opportunity to be research post 911 when plane vapour trails were non existent for a few days over certain cities.

My discussion on bushfires was to illustrate how the landscape is already changing due to a warmer globe. Iwe have never seen bushfire behaviour as that in 2009.
Bushfires air pollution is not a contributing factor to dimming.

One major effect of dimming led to changed weather in the maldives, which contributed greatly to the drough in the Sudan and other parts of Africa.

The effect of butterfly wings 😇

Ps there are better scientific articles then wiki. Anyone can write or edit them.
Click to expand...
Yes, I’ve heard of that, but again it is due to dust & aerosols, so net it is a minor “forcing”

Also the sun goes in about 11 to 15 tear cycles of minimum radiation to maximum, but the current greenhouse effect has overpowered that.
 
goout said:
If man is altering the temperature of the planet we should halt all motor vehicle traffic. And cease any industrial production which produces heat. Definitley do away with heat and air conditioning.
Let’s get serious about this. It’s not enough to tax the bejabbers out of production. Let’s put a halt to it. (Of course that wouldn’t redistribute the wealth so it will never happen…)
.
Click to expand...
We don’t need to go drastic, There are solutions that can reduce our GHGs in the US by 50 to 75%, without lowering living standards or industrial productivity.

We’ve done it in our family by 60% below our 1990 GHG emissions in1990, actually while increasing our living standard…

I’ve been inspired by the Rocky Mt Institute ( rmi.org ) & a book by its founder - Natural Capitalism – see www.natcap.org .
 
Dietary change is the hardest thing on earth, even for health reasons or for the sake of future generations.
Click to expand...
Guilty as charged.

I might somehow dredge up the willpower to change diet for the sake of my body, or as religious penance, but for “Mother Earth” — NEVER.

Go ahead, consign me to Purgatory (hopefully in Colorado).

ICXC NIKA
 
GEddie said:
Guilty as charged.

I might somehow dredge up the willpower to change diet for the sake of my body, or as religious penance, but for “Mother Earth” — NEVER.

Go ahead, consign me to Purgatory (hopefully in Colorado).

ICXC NIKA
Click to expand...
I’ve been to Purgatory. It’s pretty.
 
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